Sitting With the Hard Stuff: Trauma, Healing, and Finding Peace with Author and Activist Oneika Mays

This episode I’m joined by meditation and yoga teacher, activist, and author of ‘Sit with Me : A No BS Journey to Mindfulness and Meditation’ Oneika Mays for a powerful, unfiltered conversation about trauma, anger, justice, burnout, and what it really means to find peace in a world that often feels overwhelming and unjust. Together, we explore emotional exhaustion, resilience, mental health, and the toll of witnessing injustice in real time, while searching for ways to stay grounded, present, and human. Onika shares her journey through sexual trauma, suicidal ideation, hospitalization, and the long road toward self-compassion and healing, as well as her work teaching mindfulness inside Rikers Island. We talk about incarceration, systemic harm, moral conflict, and why safety sometimes has to be built internally when external safety does not exist. We also challenge toxic positivity and the idea that healing should look the same for everyone, reminding ourselves that meditation is not about quieting the mind, but about making peace with the one we already have. This episode is an invitation to slow down, breathe, and remember that your feelings make sense. If you are exhausted, overwhelmed, grieving, angry, or struggling to hold onto hope, you are not alone. Healing does not require perfection or calm. You are allowed to be human, complicated, and still worthy of care, compassion, rest, and connection. Found out more about Oneika and purchase her book on her website: https://www.oneikamays.com/ Follow Oneika here: https://www.instagram.com/oneikamays/?hl=en  This podcast is a place for trauma survivors as well as their friends and family. This is a safe environment to be vulnerable but it's also a place for celebration and moving forward. Let's all start to embrace who we are becoming by #mentalhealth #selfcare #self #judgingothers #judgingmeghan #suicideawareness #suicideprevention #survivor #TraumaHealing #ComplexPTSD #MentalHealthMatters #HealingJourney #Mindfulness #Meditation #YogaLife #EmotionalHealing #SelfCompassion #InnerWork #TraumaRecovery #GriefAndHealing #AngerAndGrowth #FindingPeace #Resilience #EmotionalWellbeing #HealingTogether #YouAreNotAlone #SlowHealing #HumanFirst #GentleHealing #HealingInProgress #MentalHealthAwareness #OneikaMays  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices